Driverless car companies

The City of Boston will expand its testing of driverless cars, according to a news release from the mayor’s office. The city has been working with self-driving car company nuTonomy, which has been testing autonomous vehicles in the Seaport since January 2017 under the supervision of Boston officials, after initially trying out the cars within the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Industrial Park. Officials said the testing will now occur citywide. “Continuing to test autonomous vehicles in a careful and methodical manner represents another step forward in helping us to achieve the vision for improved mobility that was established by residents during the Go Boston 2030 Transportation Plan public process,” Mayor Marty Walsh said in a statement. “If deployed thoughtfully, shared fleets of autonomous vehicles could offer the City of Boston the potential to improve safety on our streets, provide equitable connections to the MBTA, and offer a new source of mobility to … [Read more...] about Boston is expanding its driverless car testing program

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — In 2012, Steve Mahan, who is blind, climbed into the driver's seat of a self-driving car and rolled up to the drive-thru of a Taco Bell in a video that's been viewed more than 8 million times online.The piece, produced by Google, captured the potential of autonomous-car technology to change the lives of the visually impaired."It was my first time behind the steering wheel in seven years and was absolutely amazing," Mahan said. Self-driving-car advocates say that in addition to helping the disabled, the vehicles will allow people to do other tasks while driving and make roadways safer by removing human error.But six years after Google's viral video, national advocates for the estimated 1.3 million legally blind people in the U.S. are worried the industry is not factoring their needs into the design of the new technology, a mistake they say will make the cars more expensive and harder for them to access."Although we have been held up as obvious beneficiaries of … [Read more...] about Driverless cars give hope to blind

The fledgling autonomous car industry is facing intense scrutiny right now, after two crashes last month involving an Uber-owned autonomous car and a semi-autonomous Tesla Model X ended with fatalities. Nevertheless, California is laying out a framework for companies to legally pick up passengers in driverless cars—without a safety operator behind the wheel—and ferry them around. In February, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles OK’d driverless car testing to begin in the state. Until now, companies tested autonomous cars on public roads with a safety operator at the wheel, ready to take back control of the vehicle if necessary. Now, the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates transportation companies in the state, has issued a proposal that would allow companies to give the public rides in a fully-driverless car. Reuters explains how it works: The commission said its proposed rules complement the existing DMV rules but provide … [Read more...] about California Lays Out Proposal For Driverless Cars To Pick Up And Transport Passengers

In early April, California's new rules that allow automakers, tech giants and just about anybody to test fully driverless cars on its roads finally took effect. But before those companies can realize their ride-hailing robot taxi ambitions, they have to wait for the state to adopt a proposal issued by the California Public Utilities Commission. The public utility regulator's proposed rules would allow autonomous vehicles to give rides to the public as part of a pilot program – that is, so long as their creators meet a few conditions. To start with, only cars with backup drivers can initially take passengers. That won't be a problem, since only one (unnamed) company has applied for permission to test no-driver cars in California, thus far. However, the rules are expected to extend to fully driverless cars in the future. Companies must also provide the service for free – the CPUC plans to develop regulations for paid rides, but that'll come after this initial set of rules get … [Read more...] about California may soon allow passengers in driverless cars

GOOGLE has “no master plan” to ­harvest the mass of data that will be generated by its self-driving cars arm. The assurance from John Krafcik, the chief executive of Waymo, comes in the wake of the Facebook scandal, where millions of users’ details were shared with other businesses. Mr Krafcik said access to the ­information generated by those travelling in cars using Waymo’s autonomous driving technology was not a priority for the company, which is owned by Google parent, Alphabet. “Our aim is moving people around the world and that is very hard,” he said, speaking at the New York Auto Show the day after the company revealed a partnership with Jaguar to use tens of thousands of the British ­company’s I-Pace electric cars. “To the core of my body, I swear on my father’s grave, it’s not a priority,“ Mr Krafcik said. “ I’m not saying it won’t be a workstream in the future but at … [Read more...] about Google’s Waymo denies ‘masterplan’ to harvest data from driverless cars

Sections Skip to content Skip to site index The company says it will buy up to 20,000 electric cars from Jaguar Land Rover as it strives to put a ride service into operation within two years. John Krafcik, left, Waymo’s chief executive, with Ralf Speth, the chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover, at the New York auto show on Tuesday. Waymo will purchase up to 20,000 electric cars from Jaguar for its driverless ride service. Credit Joshua Bright for The New York Times Supported by ByNeal E. Boudette March 27, 2018 Waymo, the driverless-car company that was spun out of Google, has pushed farther ahead in self-driving cars than any of the automakers or other technology companies trying to pioneer the field. It has been working on its software, sensors and other gear for nine years. It has 600 or more test vehicles operating in at least four cities around the country. Its vehicles have racked up more than five million miles of testing on public roads. … [Read more...] about Waymo, a Google Spinoff, Ramps Up Its Driverless-Car Effort

Automakers can now start testing fully driverless cars on California's roads. According to the state DMV's new regulations that became effective on April 2nd, it can now issue three types of autonomous vehicle testing permits. The first kind is the original one it approved years ago, which needs a driver behind the wheel, while the other two could pave the way for the release of Level 4 to 5 autonomous vehicles. See, the second type of permit it can dole out will allow automakers to test fully driverless vehicles, and the third will give the companies permission to deploy them. While it may seem like California introduced its new permits at a bad time — Uber and Tesla were recently involved in fatal accidents while their self-driving technologies were engaged — the state approved the new regulations way back in February. The rules also include conditions automakers must be able to meet before they can get their hands on those permits. To be able to get permission to test … [Read more...] about California DMV can now allow fully driverless car testing

The New Yorker has a very long profile out today on Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, that focuses on his effort to transition the company away from the unseemly culture fostered by its previous leader, Travis Kalanick. Way at the bottom is a mention to this month’s terrible story involving an Uber-owned autonomous car that fatally struck a pedestrian. In response, Khosrowshahi offers up a wild admission that’s really worth considering. The March 18 crash, which left 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg dead, has sent Uber reeling in a way it wasn’t supposed to under Khosrowshahi. (At least that’s how his leadership style has been portrayed.) The company’s technology has been reamed by competitors in the industry for having failed to detect Herzberg amid a seemingly very basic task. Uber’s Volvo—operated by a safety driver that was later found in a video to not be watching the road in the moments prior to the crash—slammed into Herzberg at 40 … [Read more...] about Uber Wanted To Put You In A Driverless Car By The End Of The Year

General Motors has unveiled the Cruise AV, its first production-ready, fully autonomous car to be used for its driverless ride-hailing fleet in 2019.Based on the Chevrolet Bolt EV, it is a dedicated self-driving, pure electric sedan with no steering wheel or pedals. That means every seat is a passenger seat, and that the car relies on artificial intelligence and related technology to be the driver.This is the fourth-generation autonomous vehicle in 18 months that GM has developed with Cruise Automation, the company it bought in 2016. And it won’t be the last, said GM President Dan Ammann. The work started by retrofitting vehicles with lidar, sensors, and other equipment to read the surroundings and make drive decisions but the end goal was always a bespoke self-driving car.GM showed the third-generation test vehicle in October and has been using a geo-fenced portion of San Francisco for testing, a suitably tricky test bed to ensure vehicles can handle any situation. In October GM … [Read more...] about Meet the Cruise AV, GM’s First Production-Ready Driverless Car

Samsung unveiled its first set of components for autonomous driving and infotainment solutions developed with Harman International, which it bought about a year ago in a major push into the auto electronics market.The automotive industry is one of the fastest-growing segments of the technology market, with carmakers looking to add more autonomous features as the race to put driverless cars on the road heats up.At the annual CES trade show in Las Vegas this week, Samsung unveiled an automotive camera system featuring collision warning, lane-departure warning, and adaptive cruise control, developed in collaboration with Harman.Samsung bought Harman in an $8 billion deal that closed in March 2017, the biggest overseas acquisition ever by a South Korean company.Samsung plans to begin shipping the camera system, which is built on machine learning and augmented reality, this year. It did not give details on the exact timing.Samsung also showcased a "digital cockpit" that allows drivers to … [Read more...] about Samsung, Harman unveil driverless car components, digital cockpit at CES